Anaplan
Anaplan, IncExternal reviews
460 reviews
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Why Anaplan ?
What do you like best about the product?
Anaplan is a cloud-based application that can connect multiple cells and workspaces across different business use-cases and give a concise view of the KPIs.
Real-time security is enabled with instant changing of roles, and access is possible in Anaplan. Excel cannot restrict individual cell access. Anaplan has the flexibility to plan across many dimensions, which excel does not have.
Real-time security is enabled with instant changing of roles, and access is possible in Anaplan. Excel cannot restrict individual cell access. Anaplan has the flexibility to plan across many dimensions, which excel does not have.
What do you dislike about the product?
The PowerPoint add-in feature is a little obsolete and unnecessary with the launch of the new UX.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Anaplan helps with different types of planning. I have been involved in Financial Planning and Analysis for four years now. I am assisting clients in moving from Excel sheets to Anaplan planning UX. Anaplan can have scheduled data integrations from external data sources such as Informatica Cloud, SnapLogic, Mulesoft, Dell Boomi, Docusign, Workiva, and Tableau. It has dynamic time scale implementation.
Master Data structure – works on having one data hub with a single source of truth, build once and push multiple times approach.Pushing hierarchical changes across multiple worksheets is tough and error-prone
Easy for business users to adapt and easy to maintain. Anaplan has checks and balances in place to flag errors and correct inputs.
Master Data structure – works on having one data hub with a single source of truth, build once and push multiple times approach.Pushing hierarchical changes across multiple worksheets is tough and error-prone
Easy for business users to adapt and easy to maintain. Anaplan has checks and balances in place to flag errors and correct inputs.
Anaplan
What do you like best about the product?
Collaborative Planning tool with powerful In-memory engine
User-friendly Interface
Custom Integration
Intelligent and Predictive Planning Platform
User-friendly Interface
Custom Integration
Intelligent and Predictive Planning Platform
What do you dislike about the product?
Lack of native Scheduling capabilities, depend on Third party system
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Providing better decision support to our clients for Finance related decisions.
Business impacts will be visualized immediately to make better decisions
Quick decision on the go - with a unified visually impactful UX
Business impacts will be visualized immediately to make better decisions
Quick decision on the go - with a unified visually impactful UX
Anaplan is wonderful
What do you like best about the product?
The flexibility. As a partner I would say there are very few things I would tell a customer you can't do. The question is always "do we have the time to accomplish everything you want?" The answer is probably not so let's focus on the mission critical items that get the most bang for your buck.
What do you dislike about the product?
The new UX looks better, but doesn't function as well as the old UX. The fact that the cards are locked to a size makes it difficult to scale the same dashboard for people who see only a few items versus people who see thousands of items.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Solving Sales Performance Management (SPM) use cases. The greatest benefit is connected planning. Instead of companies using 100s of Excel spreadsheets that get passed around and altered, the logic is set and everyone can see what they are supposed to see and only edit what they are supposed to edit.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Give yourself time to do a proper implemenation and think of Anaplan as a living software. You shouldn't try to do everything you want when you first get it. Get the most important pieces correct and then iterate on the design.
Anaplan Customer Review
What do you like best about the product?
One of the best Anaplan features is the flexibility and agility to meet changing business needs.
What do you dislike about the product?
Management reporting has come a long way, but may is not as flexible and versatile as reporting / data visualization specific softwares (i.e. Tableau).
Anaplan is not good for data transformation.
Anaplan is not good for data transformation.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Decreasing the length of time for budget/forecast cycles, significantly reduced consolidations time.
Review for ERP Anaplan
What do you like best about the product?
1. Stability (cloud-based) and robustness in nature from a financial view.
2. Integrates with multiple technologies and is better with decision-making.
3. Inbuilt UI/UX and dashboarding options with APIs (external visualization tools like Tableau not needed)
4. Various functional features helpful for carrying out financial reports.
5. Handles a huge amount of data with a handful of customizations.
2. Integrates with multiple technologies and is better with decision-making.
3. Inbuilt UI/UX and dashboarding options with APIs (external visualization tools like Tableau not needed)
4. Various functional features helpful for carrying out financial reports.
5. Handles a huge amount of data with a handful of customizations.
What do you dislike about the product?
1. Limited storage could create a problem for handling multiple models.
2. Expensive, it could be more cost-effective.
3. Does include a few glitches with the interface.
4. An error in calculation could take up to 6-7 minutes worth of time to restore back to the original state.
2. Expensive, it could be more cost-effective.
3. Does include a few glitches with the interface.
4. An error in calculation could take up to 6-7 minutes worth of time to restore back to the original state.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
1. Supply chain models with an end-to-end analytical framework.
2. Solution development and analytical reasoning.
3. UI/UX design for visualization.
4. Report and built financial use cases.
2. Solution development and analytical reasoning.
3. UI/UX design for visualization.
4. Report and built financial use cases.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Easy collaboration, quick deployment is the need for ERP solutions, all provided by anaplan.
Anaplan, best modelling tool for collaboration and flexibility
What do you like best about the product?
Anaplan is almost as flexible as Excel. You can pretty much model anything you want and without the need to write scripts. Anaplan is probably the most flexible modelling tool on the market. This means people can stick to their models and don't have to conform to any other standard.
What do you dislike about the product?
Just like Excel it is affected by the numbers of cells used in the model. Fortunately, we are talking here of billions of cells before running into any sort of issues but still. It would be great not having to worry about it.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Collaboration is drastically improved. People don't need to send each other spreadsheets or worry about formula errors. Multiple stakeholders can access the platform simultaneously but can only see the data they have access to. The calculations happen live without the need to refresh nor save anything.
Accessible, Cleaner, Quicker Planning Processes for the Entire Business
What do you like best about the product?
Anaplan's real time updates and capabilities to show reporting quickly and easily at different levels across the business
Multiple people can make updates and leverage at the same time - no more version control risk
Multiple people can make updates and leverage at the same time - no more version control risk
What do you dislike about the product?
Consolidations capabilities could be improved
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
FP&A at the operating level, consolidating to the office of the CFO.
Treasury and tax planning.
Headcount planning.
Ability to do all of this in the same tool, driving answers quickly
Treasury and tax planning.
Headcount planning.
Ability to do all of this in the same tool, driving answers quickly
Anaplan picks up from where Excel gets stuck
What do you like best about the product?
Anaplan is very good at handling complex calculations and modeling logic applied to vast amounts of data. So Anaplan can solve problems that clients have where excel just cannot handle the levels of calculations required. I have modeled many things in Anaplan, from supply chains to call centres, to investment funds and also the obvious things like P&L's, Balance Sheet, and cashflow. You build everything from scratch so you can model pretty much anything
Another great use of Anaplan is where you want to guide the user to follow a process. You can add in whatever data validations/controls, process gates, signoff/approval stages you need. And provide the user with real-time analysis of how their inputs have impacted their plan and any KPI's connected to it
The best attribute that helps Anaplan's long term success with clients is how the models can be adapted to move with the business, so as the business and its environment changes, the model can adapt and stay relevent. Which stops users reverting back to Excel
Another great use of Anaplan is where you want to guide the user to follow a process. You can add in whatever data validations/controls, process gates, signoff/approval stages you need. And provide the user with real-time analysis of how their inputs have impacted their plan and any KPI's connected to it
The best attribute that helps Anaplan's long term success with clients is how the models can be adapted to move with the business, so as the business and its environment changes, the model can adapt and stay relevent. Which stops users reverting back to Excel
What do you dislike about the product?
The focus of new features over the past few years has been very much on making the end users experience better. So model builders have been left behind somewhat, mainly from the point of view of writing and interrogating formulas, so there is scope to make our lives easier and modelling even faster. However there is an update expected soon which is promised to make the modelers lives a lot easier, so watch this space
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Integrated P&L > Balance Sheet > Cashflow
This significantly sped up the quarterly forecasting process for my client, and I also built lots of checks for account mappings to identify any holes in the mappings which could cause a variance to the balance sheet or any of the inbuild balance checks. As the model was vast so the model admins had to really stay on top of new accounts or mappings coming in
IFRS Modelling Contract Revenue
Anaplan was able to perform the calcs at a much more detailed level than excel, which was already at its limits and provides lots of analysis for the business. Although the primary purpose was for statutory reporting on the clients' contracts over the contract life
Private Equity Fund modeling
Looking backward at investor level to calculate provisions, and looking forward for the rest of the fund's life at a deal level. To determine the expected returns on investment. The main benefit for the client is providing a solid platform to bring together their actuals plus the ability to overlay what-ifs for the outlook and compare multiple scenarios against each other. The inputs being at a level high enough for fund managers to relate to, but the underlying logic is very detailed to the extent of making decisions on when to call from or distribute to investors in a more life like way
Supply vs Demand modelling
In a range of industries, including energy, telecoms, and consumer goods. The principle is fairly similar for all of these industries, matching supply and demand, identifying variances. As with previous applictaions the main benefits were related to performing the calculations at a more detailed level than Excel can handle, and providing operations with multiple scenarios to try out mutiple ways to resolve supply or demand issues
This significantly sped up the quarterly forecasting process for my client, and I also built lots of checks for account mappings to identify any holes in the mappings which could cause a variance to the balance sheet or any of the inbuild balance checks. As the model was vast so the model admins had to really stay on top of new accounts or mappings coming in
IFRS Modelling Contract Revenue
Anaplan was able to perform the calcs at a much more detailed level than excel, which was already at its limits and provides lots of analysis for the business. Although the primary purpose was for statutory reporting on the clients' contracts over the contract life
Private Equity Fund modeling
Looking backward at investor level to calculate provisions, and looking forward for the rest of the fund's life at a deal level. To determine the expected returns on investment. The main benefit for the client is providing a solid platform to bring together their actuals plus the ability to overlay what-ifs for the outlook and compare multiple scenarios against each other. The inputs being at a level high enough for fund managers to relate to, but the underlying logic is very detailed to the extent of making decisions on when to call from or distribute to investors in a more life like way
Supply vs Demand modelling
In a range of industries, including energy, telecoms, and consumer goods. The principle is fairly similar for all of these industries, matching supply and demand, identifying variances. As with previous applictaions the main benefits were related to performing the calculations at a more detailed level than Excel can handle, and providing operations with multiple scenarios to try out mutiple ways to resolve supply or demand issues
Really strong planning platform that can model almost any business scenario
What do you like best about the product?
The underlying modeling platform is very powerful but also fairly easy for a new user to pick up. This means that it can be used for a wide variety of use cases across an organisation, in a joined up way. For example, a very operational planning model looking at supply chain planning can be built and integrated with a more financial plan.
What do you dislike about the product?
As with any SaaS tool, the challenge is in integrating with other source systems. That said Anaplan have just released CloudWorks to do just that. Whilst it's at an early stage, that really shows some promise.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We have a team that needs to respond 24/7 to incidents and we have a challenge ensuring that the rostering is done just right. We've used the Anaplan platform to implement a solution that uses statistical forecasting to look for trends and seasonality in our historical incident data and predict future demand. It then allows us to bring in rostering information and see where there will be a gap between demand and capacity. Finally, it allows us to model out changes to the roster so we can bridge that gap.
Scalable, customizable, and intelligent platform for all your business planning needs
What do you like best about the product?
Anaplan is not an out of the box solution that forces companies to fit their business process into a predefined mold, it allows businesses to build up models and planning processes that fit their needs and can continue to evolve as their business grows and changes. It is difficult to imagine a modeling scenario you can't build in Anaplan. The tool allows for a lot of flexibility in the type of planning a customer wants to do, and can truly be owned/managed by end users instead of by IT. This allows for much quicker turnaround on adjustments to a model.
What do you dislike about the product?
Since Anaplan is not a pre-built solution, it does require more up-front investment in time and resources to get set up. It requires participation from multiple groups across the organization to put together a well-thought out model and more importantly to maintain and update the model on a regular cadence to keep up with a growing company. This can allow for things that shouldn't exist in Anaplan to be put into Anaplan (such as data storage).
I also think ANaplan's front end and reporting capabilities could vastly improve the appeal of the platform, this could help reduce a customer's need for separate reporting/dashboarding in another tool like Tableau and further streamline processes by having robust reporting directly in Anaplan.
I also think ANaplan's front end and reporting capabilities could vastly improve the appeal of the platform, this could help reduce a customer's need for separate reporting/dashboarding in another tool like Tableau and further streamline processes by having robust reporting directly in Anaplan.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Anaplan very quickly solves a lot of issues around internal communication and transfer of information because it is cloud based. Instead of having multiple versions of documents, a "living" version of business plans sits in Anaplan where anyone from the organization can access to review and make changes. This in itself reduces a lot of the time spent on planning. Through implementing Anaplan solutions at multiple clients, across several industries and use cases, I have consistently found that having a dedicated model admin that knows how to build and adjust the model on the client side is most effective, it allows the client to view and approach using Anaplan as an App that requires regular updates and releases of updates to end users, rather than a one-time set up.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Have a clear plan for the future state process you would like to have in Anaplan before starting on building Anaplan; this will make the build easier, faster and ultimately result in a better model output. If you try to design a process during the build, it can quickly get messy as things are built/rebuilt or the direction is changed halfway through the build.
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